Re: “Drivers and cyclists: Pay attention and share the road” [July 24, Opinion]:
While I share Brian Dirks’ concern about aggressive drivers, I think bikers need to remember most drivers are also pedestrians, many who walk our multiuse trails. And many pedestrians on our trails have been confronted by bicyclists who have little or no concern for pedestrians.
I invite Dirks to take a walk on the Burke-Gilman Trail sometime. What he will see is many kinds of users. He will see seniors moving slowly and carefully down the trail. He will see families on bikes with small children getting used to riding a bike. And he will see cyclists speeding past him, not giving warning, not giving space, not yielding to pedestrians — generally treating pedestrians as pylons on a racecourse, something to be navigated around.
Bicyclists know what it feels like when you’re on the road and a car or truck passes close to you at 50 or 60 miles per hour. The pedestrian feels the same thing.
I’m a biker, and I get what Dirks is saying. It’s frightening for bicyclists when confronted with an aggressive driver. I wish bicyclists remembered what that feels like when they’re the aggressor.
John Hartman, Lake Forest Park